The Korea Beat translated an extremely biased South Korean news report yesterday. No surprise on the stance this reporter assumes. You can read the original report here and Korea Beat’s translation here. A segment of the translated article reads:

Starting yesterday (the 26th) the Board on Geographic Names, an organ of the United States federal government, suddenly designated Dokdo an “area of undesignated sovereignty”, a label at odds with Korea’s sovereignty. The United States appears to have done this with the intent of appearing neutral but of course this serves the goals of Japan.

Special correspondent Weon Il-hui reports from Washington.

We did a search of foreign place names at the US Board on Geographic Names.

A search for Liancourt Rocks or Dokdo would come up as being in “Korea”, or just “the sea”, but since yesterday they have been called “areas of undesignated sovereignty”.

Also, the informal names now place Takeshima ahead of Dokdo.

Looks like those mischievous Japs are at it again! And this time, to make matters worse, the USA is siding with them! Can you note the sarcasm here? Regardless, it’s clear to the average person that the USA’s move to designate the Takeshima/Dokdo islets as disputed territory was done in order to assume a neutral stance on the issue. Koreans, however, see it as a big win for the Japanese.